Passengers describe ‘flight from hell’ after Delta airlines flight fills with smoke

Passengers aboard a Delta Airlines plane that filled up with smoke after landing have described the ordeal as a "flight from hell".

While passengers say a dog was first to notice something was wrong, a dizzying smoke soon began to fill the cabin from the vents, sending those aboard Delta Flight 1854 into a panic and necessitating an evacuation Tuesday night.

Passengers crammed onto the wing after jumping out of the emergency exit, then lowered themselves to the ground. They slid down the inflatable exit ramps in the front to the tarmac.

“Now that I’m not in a daze: fumes came through the vents after we landed. It made us instantly dizzy. No direction from Delta said what to do. Smelled like an electrical fire, but we don’t know yet,” Rachel Nafta, the passenger on the flight who also said a dog was the first to notice the smoke, wrote on Twitter.

“We all keep saying how bad our mouths taste still after breathing it,” Ms Nafta also Tweeted of the smoke.

An official from Delta Airlines said that, in spite of some of the social media posts from passengers, the plane had not actually caught on fire. The smoke was the result of hydraulic oil dripping onto an auxiliary power unit that was activated as the plane landed.

“There was no fire. It was just the smoke coming off [from] the hydraulic fluid hitting the auxiliary power unit. It’s similar to a car,” Adrian Gee, a representative for Delta, said, referring to the smoke that can come from car engines when fluids come into contact with a hot engine.

The evacuation of the 146 passengers on the flight originating in Detroit resulted in a handful of minor injuries, the airline says, including some hospitalizations for smoke inhalation and sprained ankles. All of the passengers who were injured were discharged Tuesday night.

Jim McManus, who tweeted that the journey — which had already been delayed by three hours — was a “flight from hell”, later told local media that most people remained calm when the smoke began to fill the cabin. Flight attendants, he said, had instructed passengers to keep their heads down and exit the plane, he said.

“We were kind of sitting there complaining among ourselves, and one guy point out that it didn’t happen while in the air,” Mr McManus said, noting that the incident could have been worse.

Delta says that, although there were no grave injuries, the safety of its customers are its top priority.

“After smoke entered the cabin upon Flight 1854’s landing, the crew determined that an emergency evacuation was necessary, and they quickly and professionally directed passengers off the aircraft through the various exits onboard,” the airline’s statement says.

“We are additionally thankful to customers who followed the professional direction of our crews in support of themselves and fellow passengers. We apologize for the concern this event has caused,” the statement continues. “The safety of Delta’s customers and crew is our top priority.”